About

The timeliness of current information to the March of Dimes, a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant mortality, is imperative to its consumer and healthcare community. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies.

Challenge

March of Dimes had an urgent need to implement a content management system (CMS) that offered XML capabilities, syndication and content leasing, flexibility, personalization and ease of use so any authorized staff member could post online content regardless of technical experience. Finding a content management solution that was Web-based was a key factor for the MOD as they plan to roll out editing to remote users/chapters in the near future.

Prior to implementing a CMS, the March of Dimes updated its Web site using a homegrown e-mail notification system and Microsoft’s FrontPage. Nearly 20 people submitted content for HTML coding that was handled by only one person. Now, these 20 content contributors can edit, add or delete content themselves – giving them more control over their work and freeing up the IT person to focus on infrastructure and other related initiatives. MOD was also faced with a complex method of updating current information to the site and a lack of workflow.

They identified challenges essential to communicating critical information to their community. These challenges included; a lack of capabilities to implement cross promotions, the need to add content to the site efficiently, a way to tag and publish pages in a savvy manner and the ability to manage multiple sites and tools to create an interface they can standardize as they roll out additional users.

Solution

After an extensive search, the March of Dimes selected Open Text Web Solutions because it could deliver the tools needed to make the site more efficient and interactive. The implementation was seamless and only took a month to complete. Open Text Web Solutions enables contributors to quickly add, change and remove content on the Web site without the assistance of the site’s technical staff. This helps free up technical resources to be allocated to more mission-critical business needs. Content does, however, move through the robust workflow engine to get management approval before publishing to the live site. This enables the March of Dimes to have complete content control. Open Text Web Solutions met the needs of the March of Dimes in numerous ways. The March of Dimes is now empowered to facilitate template management, create a simple workflow system, configure editing procedure and prepare for their upcoming expansion by rolling out editing to the organizations remote users/chapters.

Results

The March of Dimes has already experienced immediate ROI with Open Text Web Solutions. The Web initiative has produced positive results such as, dramatic minimized errors in publishing, they’ve also significantly reduced content cycles on the Web site from two weeks to three days (in some cases less). Now, they are also able to open up editing permissions to other staff for self content management, as they plan to roll out to additional editors upon completion of the next version. Furthermore, Open Text Web Solutions has increased the speed of posting current information to the MOD site.